Having finished the cowl vent repair I'm now patching the rear quarters. Picked up a pair of quarter skins on the Forum and am replacing from below the body line down. Also fabing inner fender patches. This is my first attempt at rust repair on this scale. Having practiced the MIG welding on the floors, cowl vent, core support and inner fender under the battery, I think its going OK (with lots of grinding) on the quarter panels. Pictures below are of driver's side inner fender BEFORE. The driver's side had been hit behind the wheel. You can see both rust and deformation. Did that side first so I'd have a straight pass side fender/inner fender as a pattern.
Good progress!!! That inner wheel house lip will test your fab skills(i would just make it from 2 pieces) if you dont allready have a good doner part.Good luck!!!!
Driver's Side Inner Fender After Fabed the inner fender patches first. Welded the patches to the good parts of the inner fender with extra metal where the inner fender meets the quarter skin. Did the final trim of those areas after the skin was welded in place.
Driver's Side Panel Welded in Here is the panel welded in. I used Eastwood's crimper around the edge of the new skin and inserted the skin under the upper part of the quarter panel. That puts the old panel and the new skin at the same height with a nice little valley along the seam for weld and filler.
Thanks. Yes, I think two pieces would have been less difficult. I stared at all the rust and distortion for a LONG time trying to figure out how to approach it. How to do all the forming and get the inner fender to mate with the skin. Good thing no one's paying me for the time I'm putting in. This has taken weeks. Hope the other side will go faster. Have to think about the two pieces idea.
Looks good so far....Yeah I know what you mean about time...Time is money in a production shop.Thats why collision shops replace instead of fab.Lots of grinding to do there...looks like fun
That is true to a point but quarter panels still have to be cut off and welded on.There is fab work as well to make them fit. Lots of times I never put the full panel on. Your work looks better than most apprentices I have seen over the past few years.Up here we have to weld solid or the body filler will blister.(moisture and road salt)
You are absolutely right Mike...Just saying production shops dont fab where they dont have too.Finding a good fabricator is getting tougher these days it seems.
Thanks, Ray. These are the skins Dennis dropped off when he picked up the fuel tank to deliver to you in Florida. One nearly done and one to go.
